CH 8

A Common Scene Before the Decisive Battle

Dream Side

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The reason why I was summoned to another world on that day when I was 17 years old was the common one, it’s to “Save this world”.

…… If that’s the case, a little more explanation and preferential treatment would be nice.

We were suddenly summoned to another world, and for the past five years, we’ve been forced to wander left and right in this world. I want to complain to the “Goddess” who summoned us.

I know now that the reason for this was to “prevent people from unilaterally taking the side of humans without knowing what was going on in the world”.

Thanks to it, we went through all kinds of hardships and difficulties, and each time we overcame them, we got irreplaceable friends.

A survivor of a village destroyed by a demon invasion, he is a martial artist old man who lost his beloved wife when the country abandoned him.

A saint who rebelled against the Archbishop, who was connected to the demon tribe behind the scenes and was fattening himself.

A handsome heavy knight who was the general of an empire that was destroyed by a neighboring country due to the confusion of the battle between humans and demons.

The daughter of the holy archer of the Sacred Bow Tribe, which was destroyed because it was said to worship evil spirits and was actually a hindrance to the tribe worshipping the mountain as a holy place to secure resources.

A demon swordsman who was raised by the demon tribe from birth and initially joined the group as a spy for the heroes.

Everyone is an integral part of our party nowadays.

However, one week before the final battle against the Demon King, I, the team leader, announced the temporary disbanding of the party.

The friends at the table all looked surprised, but the one who was most upset was surprisingly the demon swordsman, who was supposed to be the calmest and most patience.

“What’s going on, Yumeji! We can’t disband now, before the final battle!!”

He tapped the table and stood up, and everyone was surprised, but all nodded in agreement.

But… only one mage, she closes her eyes without any reaction.

“A week later, we’ll be fighting for the final. It’s going to be a different, fierce battle.”

“So! If we break up now…”

“Think calmly… withdraw from that Demon King and challenge the final battle that can’t be rematched? With just five of us, you think we’re going to make it back safely?”

“That is……”

The swordsman was choked just because I said that.

There is no one in the party who doesn’t know the horror of the demon tribe led by the demon king, but among us, the demon swordsman who used to be on the other side is the one who understands the horror of the demon king the best.

If it is fear, he understands it better than any of us.

“To be clear, I don’t know if we’ll be alive to sit around the same table again in a week. I am the one who says this, but I may not even be here…”

As I look around, the eyes of my friends are shaking.

Everyone understands that this is a strong possibility.

“That’s why… I want everyone to come away with a renewed sense of why you’re fighting.”

Each of us gathered here has a place to return to, someone to protect, and a reason to fight.

I’m going to use even their noble thoughts to avenge my enemies.

Something like Yuusha… is not suitable for someone like me who is underhanded and a coward…

“Everyone, meet the places you want to go and the people you want to meet in a week. To have no regrets and to confront the Demon King with all your might… and to be sure to come back.”

“Even if you say that… I don’t have anywhere to go.”

The demon swordsman looked away at my words, but I smiled at him.

“Oya~? There’s that girl who ran away from the demon tribe with you, right.”

“Huh!? You… What are you saying…”

A demon swordsman was instantly flustered by my point. Fufufu, he thought I didn’t know about it, didn’t he?

He was originally a spy sent by the demon tribe, but as soon as he betrayed them, he released the captives, but everyone knew that he was on good terms with the ex-noble daughter of the exiled country.

“What, you didn’t think I knew?”

“I heard from the person herself directly?”

“Umu, did you always exchange letters?”

“What? You guys are a married couple? We thought…”

A demon swordsman’s face became bright red when his friends refuse to retreat.

Oh! I think it’s the first time I’ve seen this normally calm guy make this kind of face.

However, in the end, the mage, she let out a sigh and give a finishing blow.

“Good grief, you’re a troublesome papa ~. I wonder if you can take responsibility properly?”

A moment of silence… I understood the meaning of the words, and at the same time, I had to admire my childhood friend.

We didn’t know that information, either.

The strongest demon swordsman, the ruthless mad swordsman… The man who is known for such a nickname is in “dumbfounded eyes,” which you will never see again, was the perfect accompaniment, We blew off the heavy atmosphere we had been in earlier and got excited about “pregnancy celebration”.

And our party broke up as soon as the banquet was ending.

I laughed a little when the demon swordsman who had been the most reluctant to disband was the first to leave the store.

There is no need to tell where he went.

Then everyone leaves their seat one after another.

To see why each of us is fighting, to come to see our loved ones again…

[We will meet in front of the fountain in the center of the city a week from now. Even if you don’t show up then, we won’t say anything. Please think carefully before making a decision.]

That’s what I told my friends as I sent them off.

Good grief… I think it’s so irresponsible and selfish behavior that makes me laugh at myself.

By doing so, I’m trying to get rid of the pressure of responsibility by relieving the feeling of guilt.

Laughing to myself, the only person left at the end was my childhood friend from the same hometown and fellow Grand Mage.

“…Are you not going anywhere?”

When I said that, she looked at me while resting her chin on her hand, with a dumbfounded look and slightly angry manner.

“Even though you know it, I don’t think I, no, we, have a place to go back to in this world.”

“…That’s right.”

The place we should go back to, it’s not that we don’t have feelings for this world, but the place we should go back to can’t be this world for us.

As I was thinking about this, she quickly got up from her seat, walked behind me, and hugged me as if she was covering me.

“Wh-What are you doing…”

“…Don’t blame yourself”

“Eh!?”

“I don’t want their loved ones may lose them. I don’t want to let my friends die. Honestly, it’s hard to defeat the enemy even if any one of them is missing, but I am irresponsible for preparing a way to escape from “self-responsibility” until the end, how irresponsible I am. I am not suitable as Yuusha… That’s what you’re thinking anyway, right?”

The moment she said that, I was shocked and at the same time lost power at once.

Her eyes, which are so close to me, seem to be sincerely worried about me… She makes me realize that I can’t hide anything from her.

“…How do you know?”

“I understand. How many years do you think I’ve been your childhood friend?”

How many years… 22 years if I include reincarnation in another world?

We’ve been estranged for a while, but we’ve actually known each other for a long time~.

“Amane, if you don’t have anywhere to go… can you go out with me a little?”

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“It’s awful, isn’t it… that this is the first town we’ve been in.”

“It’s been a long time since then, and people still haven’t come back…”

The place where we were both transferred to was our first base as adventurers after we were summoned to this world, and where we were staying for a long time.

But there was not a single person on the streets, which were filled with the hustle and bustle of people at the time, and the half-destroyed houses were abandoned as they had been when the attack occurred, a magnificent ruin.

When we were training in this town as new adventurers, the town was attacked for the sole reason that it was on the path of the demon tribe’s invasion of the human world.

Naturally, the non-combatant residents of the town could not possibly resist the violence of the demon tribe’s numbers, and the battle was a retreat from the beginning with the goal of evacuation.

The many crosses that lined the vacant lot in the town where we stopped were made by vigilantes and adventurers who sacrificed themselves to help people escape at that time… the tombs of the heroes.

If they hadn’t been there at the time, I wonder how much more damage would have been done.

And in the midst of all this, there was a single gravestone on the top of the hill that overlooked the town the most.

It was a cemetery built sometime after that day for our own satisfaction, as we were low-level at the time and could only escape with the non-combatant residents.

A shishou who taught us how to be adventurers when we were summoned to another world and didn’t know anything, and she taught me how to use a sword.

For Amane, it was the first person in this world that she had become close to, a friend of the same gender and a sister-like a person.

It was the grave of our first companion we lost.

“Holy Swordfighter Lean Bell” Without her, we would definitely not be alive now.

She saved our lives that day, of course, but she was also the one who taught us everything we needed to know about how to survive as adventurers in this other world.

I naturally clasp my hands and join my hands to the headstone.

I don’t know what the religious rules are in this world, but as a Japanese person, this is just the way I like to pray for the deceased.

Either way, she wasn’t a person who was concerned about the details of that area, so it would be fine.

And when I glance to the side, I see Amane doing the same, praying to the gravestone.

I went to the gravestone to report to Shishou, and together we reminisced about that day when the town was attacked by the demon tribe.

At that time, I tried to fight together with Shishou, also with skilled adventurers, but she beat me up and yelled at me.

“Don’t make a mistake!! It’s not this town, or us, or this world that you should be protecting!! The only thing you need to protect is the one woman you love!! The duties of a yuusha can be done on the side!!”

The words of this master have become my action principle to this day.

It’s hard to believe that a person from this world, even hailed as a holy swordfighter, would say that to a yuusha… Those words are more imprinted in my mind than the words of any great king or the words of any goddess who is supposed to be at the top of this world.

Save the world along with those you protect… That’s a saying that only she can say.

“Kuku…”

“…What are you laughing at?”

“No, nothing…”

Amane asks me as if she is curious that I laughed unintentionally, but she closes her eyes again and continues to join her hands. I guess she also has something to report to the person she adored as her “sister”.

…… First of all, until today, I think we have managed to fulfill the promise we made that day, Shishou.

Well, there were many times when I was able to survive because I had help from my friends and Amane herself was strong, so I can’t deny that there are a lot of holes in my story, but… Take it easy on me.

One week from now, I’m going to save the world while I protect this girl…

For a few minutes, we prayed to our heart’s content and then left the tombstone.

“Well… Now I have done what I had to do first…”

“First? Is there anything more you want to do now?”

Amane asks with tilting her neck, and my heart starts to race like a fast bell… This tension… I’ve never experienced this in any battles I’ve ever had.

Thinking about it, I’ve known her for a long time, but it wasn’t until the second year after we arrived in the other world that we had a man-woman relationship.

It was right around the time we lost our master.

To be honest, the reason for this was shameful, but it was the result of licking my wounds with Amane, who was also heartbroken, in order to cover up and comfort the grief and pain of losing our friends.

…… Now that I think about it, I feel bad for Amane.

Well, it was one of the worst things that could have happened, but now I can say with certainty that the woman I love the most is none other than Amane.

There have been times when I have been courted by noblemen and royalty and beautiful women because I am a yuusha, but this girl is the only one for me.

It’s been 5 years since we came to another world… She was maturing as an adult, and I took a box out of my pocket and opened it to show her.

At a small glowing ring, she takes a breath and her eyes open.

It doesn’t exist as a method of this world, but as an earthling, I wanted to do it this way.

“I want you… to marry me…”

“…………”

When Amane heard my words, she turned bright red for a while, and looked like she was about to cry or get angry, or make a hundred faces repeatedly…… Finally, she let out a sigh as if giving up.

“Whether we win or lose, we only have one week left? Why do you say it now…”

“That… I’m sorry, but…!?”

But when I tried to make some excuse, my mouth was suddenly blocked by Amane.

She hugged me from the front and kissed me…

“Okay… It’s only a week, but I have no choice but to be your wife.”

When she said that, she turned red and smiled as if she was embarrassed… Nothing has changed since that childhood day when we were playing together.

She has been giving me courage and healing ever since that day with the most beautiful smile.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I hugged Amane tightly.

“Kya!? …Mou, you’re so pushy sometimes …”

“Do you hate it?”

“Yeah… I love you.”

And… in the ruined town, our honeymoon of only a week began.

Only two of us… a sweet, sweet world…